Monday, November 30, 2015

Yes, the Black Lives Matter movement is anti-capitalist. As someone who works in sales I have tremendous sympathy for the Chicago Magnificent Mile retailers who suffered on Black Friday because of theses leftists. The rabble--who had no parade or rally permit--blocked North Michigan Avenue and the entrances to stores. The police should have arrested these lawbreakers. Even if the protesters had a permit, they violated the law when they blocked street traffic, sidewalk foot traffic, and store entrances.

Activists who blocked the entrances to stores on North Michigan Avenue on Black Friday to protest the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white Chicago cop may have split opinions with their tactics.

But their goal of forcing retailers to suffer economic pain on what's historically the busiest shopping day of the year was a success, according to unhappy store staff and managers who said Monday that Black Friday sales on the Magnificent Mile were 25 percent to 50 percent below projections.

Images of protesters marching down North Michigan urging a holiday shopping boycott dramatically reduced foot traffic while protesters who physically blocked shoppers from entering stores also hurt sales in a big way, according to the retailers, some of whom were critical of the low-key police response.

"We were down a lot," said Sarah Midoun, a sales associate at Aldo shoe store. "We were budgeted to make $37,000 but we only did $19,000 — customers told us they were concerned.

Leftists don't care about "the people." They only care about their causes.

When dealing with sociopathic terrorists such as the Islamic State, we cannot take any option off of the table.

But like Barack Obama, Hillary Rotten Clinton is telling our enemies how we won't fight--that is, no ground troops. Using them should be one of our last resorts--but it is a resort. Besides, troops are what we may need to drain the ISIS swamp and kill the crocodiles in Iraq and Syria.

On Black Friday on Chicago's North Michigan Avenue Black Lives Matter protesters blocked traffic and tried to prevent people from shopping at the high-end stores there. The BLM screechers were protesting the death of Laquan McDonald, a black teen who was shot sixteen times last year by a white Chicago police officer, Jason Van Dyke. The cop has been charged with first degree murder.

While I have to wonder why it took more than a year for Van Dyke to be charged, the justice system is working. But that's not good enough for the Black Lives Matter leftists, so they disrupted traffic, shopping, and most importantly, harmed the livelihoods of the people who work at North Michigan Avenue retail outlets, most of whom don't make much money.

During Thanksgiving weekend, there were eight shooting deaths in Chicago, including one on Friday afternoon while the Black Lives Matter protest was taking place. All of the victims were men, at least five of these homicide victims were black. There were no protests in the neighborhoods where these men were gunned down. No one has been charged in any of these murders as of this writing, which is not unusual because most Chicago homicides go unsolved.

At least 20 other people were wounded over the weekend in shootings all across the city.

Nationally, between 1980 and 2008 ninety-three percent of black murder victims were murdered by other blacks. There's no reason to believe those figures aren't radically different in 2015 Chicago.

Of course Black Lives Matter protesters care about black-on-black murders. But most of these 1.16 murders per day are not worthy of their attention because a white man usually doesn't pull the trigger. So don't go looking for a Black Lives Matter protest in Chicago's crime-ridden Englewood on the South Side soon.

Yes, black lives matter. All lives matter. But to the leftists some black lives matter more than others.

Finally, the image of Black Lives Matter protester Lamon Reccord facing down a cop at a Wednesday downtown Chicago protest has gone viral.

I wonder if Reccord has the courage to pull the same stunt with the leader of the notorious Gangster Disciples street gang.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

New York Daily News blogger Bob Lefsetz is blaming Republicans for Friday's deadly shootings at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Colorado Springs. He demands an answer as to why GOPers are "recruiting and influencing loonies to do their dirty work to eliminate the evil scourge known as abortion?"

Here's a task for Leftsetz. Name one Republican who encouraged this heinous crime.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

While the media videotaped Black Lives Matters leftists blocking Chicago's Michigan Avenue shopping district Friday afternoon, Hommy Vega was shot to death in the predominately African American neighborhood of West Garfield Park on the city's crime-ridden West Side.

So far protesters have not blocked Madison Street, which is near where Vega was murdered.

On Tuesday I braved the "No Trespassing" sign off of Golf Road in the town of Golf to photograph a vintage log cabin at the 17th hole at the Glen View Club. It was built by John Dewes, who was one of the first European settlers in Niles Township, Illinois.

Those portholes you see are supposedly so the Dewes family could defend themselves with rifles if there was an Indian attack.

Later today Black Lives Matters protesters will attempt to block Chicago's Michigan Avenue as Black Friday shoppers look for bargains. If have the chance to speak to one of the leftists, ask them if they know about Jontaye Walker. The 23-year-old was gunned down on the North Side on Thanksgiving afternoon.

The #BlackLivesMatters crowd and their leftist allies marched in Chicago's streets yesterday--without a permit of course--protesting the disturbing shooting death of Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. The cop has been charged with murder.

Also yesterday in Chicago one teen was shot to death, and four other Chicagoans were wounded in incidents across the city, including some in predominantly black neighborhoods.

After marches in the Loop, River North and South Loop, protesters set their sights on the City of Chicago’s official Christmas Tree in Millennium Park.

Several dozen protesters were seen taking down metal barricades and then stripping the lights off the tree before 10 p.m. Wednesday. It was yesterday that the city held the official tree lighting ceremony. CBS 2 observed two women being restrained by police.

The protesters then went north down Michigan Avenue and stripped Christmas decorations off of Trump Tower.

A 17-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities say he beat his 91-year-old neighbor and set his house on fire.

George Steward, who lives on Bentler in Detroit, was also charged with felony murder and arson, said Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.

Steward is accused in the killing of Paul Monchnik, a retired TV repairman, in the early hours of Monday morning. Police have said that the assailant had entered the elderly man's home intending to steal, but that an attack soon followed -- and then the assailant, to cover his tracks, ended up buying gasoline and lighting the home on fire.

When authorities were called on reports of a fire at about 3 a.m. Monday, they found Monchnik with a head injury and severe burns all over his body. Monchnik was pronounced dead at the scene.

In a statement, a Wayne County prosecutor said, "The word 'heinous' does not even begin to describe this crime." True, very true.

There is a reason why you probably hadn't heard about Monchnik's murder. The victim was a white man who lived in a mostly African American neighborhood. The suspect is black.

But imagine if the man murdered lived in a mostly white neighborhood--and he was black. Imagine if the suspect was white. The Black Lives Matter protesters would have descended upon the Motor City in force by now and the crime would be a leading national story. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be holding competing press conferences.

Monchnik's son spoke to the Free Press about his father, who came to the United States from Poland when he was a child. "He lived by himself; he was nearly deaf," the younger Monchnik said, "so he lived in his own little world and got along in his own little world very comfortably."

One way--killing all of them of course is the best way--to harm the Islamic State is to cripple their finances, such as destroying their oil wells. But watch here as former acting CIA Director Michael Morell says President Obama, the rigid ideologue, refused to bomb the wells because of fear of environmental damage.

We're at war, you moron. Do you think, Dear Leader, that ISIS would hesitate for one second if they had the opportunity to blow up one American oil well?

Obama is more concerned about offending his leftist environmental base than he is of ISIS attacks on civilization.

On the same day professional protesters swarmed downtown Chicago in response to the release of a disturbing 2014 police dash-cam video showing a teen, Laquan McDonald, being shot 16 times by cop--who has since been charged with murder--seven people were shot on the South Side, one of them fatally.

The silence you hear is the response from those leftists over those shootings.

Liberal hero Woodrow Wilson, easily the most racist president of the 20th century, is under attack from leftists. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen, while acknowledging the progressive icon's bigotry, defends Wilson, although he leaves out another shameful chapter from the 28th presidents's term--his shameful attacks on civil liberties during World War I.

But Cohen does make the effort to call Dr. Ben Carson "a political ignoramus."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian warplane near Turkey's border with Syria is a "stab in the back" and it would have “significant consequences” for its relations with Turkey, as NATO called an emergency meeting over the incident.

Putin said the Russian Sukhoi-24 jet was shot by a missile from a Turkish jet over Syria about just over a half-mile away from the Turkish border, which he described as a "stab in the back by the terrorists' accomplices." Putin was meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Sochi. Prior to the meeting, The New York Times said Putin was "speaking slowly and clearly angry."

Rebels said they fired at the two parachuting pilots as they descended, and that one had died. A rebel spokesman said they would consider releasing the body in exchange for prisoners held by Syria. The fate of the second pilot was not immediately known.

The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to possible risks of travel due to increased terrorist threats. Current information suggests that ISIL (aka Da'esh), al-Qa'ida, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics, using conventional and non-conventional weapons and targeting both official and private interests. This Travel Alert expires on February 24, 2016.

Authorities believe the likelihood of terror attacks will continue as members of ISIL/Da'esh return from Syria and Iraq. Additionally, there is a continuing threat from unaffiliated persons planning attacks inspired by major terrorist organizations but conducted on an individual basis. Extremists have targeted large sporting events, theatres, open markets, and aviation services. In the past year, there have been multiple attacks in France, Nigeria, Denmark, Turkey, and Mali. ISIL/Da'esh has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Russian airliner in Egypt.
threats.

It goes on, but State seems to be implying that it's best to stay home.

Oh, I wasn't aware that the alternative name for ISIS, Daesh, had an apostrophe in it until now. Or did the State Department add it to make it look more Middle Eastern and exotic?

On the east end of Coldwater, Michigan on US Route 12--Chicago Street in the Branch County town--is the Abram C. Fisk Home.

This Second Empire structure is one of many spectacular 19th century houses in Coldwater. And this one is easier to photograph than most of them--because it's situated next to a Biggsby Coffee with ample parking.

If Coldwater, Michigan sounds familiar to you, it could because you're British or you read Erik Larson's 2006 bestseller Thunderstruck, which recounts the story of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen. The Coldwater-born homeopath was the first criminal suspect captured with the aid of wireless technology. Crippen murdered his wife--although his guilt has been questioned in recent years--and was fleeing on an ocean liner for the United States with his girlfriend when he was captured by a Scotland Yard detective. He was arrested and returned to Great Britain.

Crippen was hanged on this date 105 years ago in Pentonville Prison in London. He was buried, as was the practice at that time, in an unmarked grave on the prison grounds.

On the day after much of the Midwest is digging out from a major late fall snowstorm, AP chose to publish a fact check on presidential candidates--with grades--on their climate change beliefs. Needless to say, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton pass.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

The climate change cultists will come up with some convoluted reason that despite global warming it's getting colder. Chicago got hit with a smashmouth snowstorm that began last night and ended this afternoon--11 inches was the official accumulation in the city--but some northern suburbs were punished with 17 inches.

On the corner of Michigan Avenue and 23rd Street in Detroit is an abandoned building that one was the home of Anthony Grosfield Hardware. The conical roof, which some call a "witch hat turret," caught my eye; I've always had a soft spot for them.The store was on the first floor, apartments were upstairs.

A tattered sign out front promise that the Grosfield Apartments were "coming soon."

Friday, November 20, 2015

At least 27 people, including one American citizen, are dead in Friday's Mali hotel attack, a senior State Department official tells ABC News.

According to a family member, 41-year-old Anita Datar of New Jersey worked in the Washington D.C. area and was in Mali "...doing what she loved - strengthening public help."

A biography from Tulalens read Datar was a founding board member of the company, which aims to provide health services to under-served communities. She earned degrees from Columbia University's Joseph Mailman School of Public Health and School of International and Public Affairs, and was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 90s.

Heavily armed Islamic extremists seized dozens of hostages at a Radisson hotel, but Malian troops, backed by U.S. and French special forces, swarmed in to retake the building and free many of the terrified captives. Multiple people, including Datar, were killed along with two gunmen during the more than seven-hour siege, a Malian military commander said.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

President Obama, who is continuously out of tune with the thinking of mainstream America, does want to stop the flow of Syrian migrants into the United States, despite the reasonable possibility that Islamic State terrorists could be among the so-called refugees.

In a 289-137 vote, the House on Thursday easily approved legislation that requires new screening requirements on refugees from Syria and Iraq before they can enter the United States.

Forty-seven Democrats defied President Obama’s veto threat and backed the bill — enough to override a presidential veto given the six Democrats and two Republicans who missed the vote.

The 47 Democrats who voted for the bill ranged from centrist Blue Dogs, vulnerable lawmakers in tough reelection races and even one member of leadership: Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who heads House Democrats' communications efforts.

Two Republicans voted against the bill, which passed with a veto-proof majority.

Is a Colorado federal prison big enough for two celebrity inmates?
From AP:

Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle was sentenced Thursday to more than 15 years in prison for trading in child pornography and having sex with underage prostitutes, with the judge describing his "perversion and lawlessness" as "extreme." The judge recommended a prison in Colorado.

Judge Tanya Walton Pratt disregarded prosecutors' recommendation that Fogle get 12½ years behind bars, opting for a stiffer term of 15 years and eight months in prison. She could have sentenced him to up to 50 years.

In explaining her sentence, the federal judge noted how fortunate Fogle was to land his lucrative deal to be the face of Subway after he lost more than 200 pounds in college, partly by eating the chain's sandwiches.

"What a gift, to have such a professional windfall fall in your lap," she said. But Pratt said Fogle blew the chance he'd been given by living a double life and pointed out that the crimes he committed weren't victimless.

As I've stated many times on this blog, the most fundamental responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens, not, for example, redistributing wealth. Which is why I support the position of my governor, Bruce Rauner, and other Republicans who want to at least temporarily block the resettlement of Syrian migrants into the United States.

Speaking of his GOP opposition yesterday, Obama said, "At first, they were too scared of the press being too tough on them in the debates. Now they are scared of 3-year-old orphans. That doesn't seem so tough to me."

What about Obama? He hasn't been interviewed by anyone from Fox News in nearly two years--and that was when he sat down with Bill O'Reilly before Super Bowl 48 on the Fox broadcast network. It's been seven years since Obama appeared on Fox News Sunday.

Baltimore isn't just back to 1990s-level homicide rates. It has surpassed them — and with a month and a half to go before the year's end.

Given the city's smaller population today, and the stack of killings that occurred in recent days, 2015 has officially become the deadliest year, per capita, in Baltimore history.

A man stabbed to death became the 300th homicide victim of 2015 on Saturday, the first time the city has reached that gruesome milestone since 1999. As of Tuesday evening, five more men had been shot dead, pushing the city's per capita homicide rate — based on the recent population estimate of 622,793 residents — to 48.97 per 100,000 residents. That breaks the record of 48.77 homicides per 100,000 residents set in 1993, when there were an estimated 723,802 city residents and the city hit its highest number of killings ever, with 353.

There have been 21 homicides in November alone with nearly half the month left — continuing a trend of more than a killing per day since the April death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent unrest.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Islamic State said it had killed a Norwegian and a Chinese captive, showing what appeared to be pictures of the dead men under a banner reading "Executed" in the latest edition of its English language magazine.

It did not give any details in the online Dabiq magazine, published on Wednesday, about how, when or where the men were killed.

Have you ever had a salesperson quote you an outrageously high price for something such as a house or a car and replied, "Do you think I'm stupid?" That salesperson is of course thinking, "Well, I didn't want to miss the opportunity in case you are."

So it was yesterday when a Chicago imam, Azam Akram, spoke at the College of DuPage west of the city about ISIS and terrorism.

The Quran does not encourage violence. Akram says he has never read a phrase in the religious text that supports acts like stoning or beheading.

And extremism needs to be stopped. One way to join in that effort, he says, is to quit using the term "Islamic State," or "ISIS."

"To say any of these people are Muslims is wrong," he said. "The word 'ISIS' gives these monsters legitimacy."

Let's take these one at a time.

Does Islam mean peace? No, it means submission or surrender, its root word comes the Arabic word for peace. The Middle East, which is dominated by Muslims, is anything but peaceful.

Sura 47:4 from the Quran is quite violent.This verse--note "smiting of the neck"--has been used by jihadis to justify beheading infidels.

Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom till the war lay down its burdens.

As for the name, Islamic State--well, it's what they call themselves. I call myself Marathon Pundit as well as John. And besides, as Iowahawk noted last week, "ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has a PhD in Islamic theology from Islamic U of Baghdad."

No, I'm not stupid.

Yes, there are peaceful Muslims. But please, imam, don't distort the truth.

Does the Bible condone stoning? Amazingly enough, yes it does. Take a look at Deuteronomy 22:21. But you never hear about Jews or Christians stoning adulterers.

Trump was reacting to a highlight reel from Obama's Monday press conference in Turkey, in which the president blasted Republicans for their opposition to the US accepting Muslim Syrian refugees.

The Republican presidential front-runner slammed Obama for supposedly being more angry at the reporters grilling him on last week's terror attack in Paris than the attackers who committed the massacre.

The latest entry in Bill O'Reilly's "Killing" series is "Killing Reagan," which is about the 1981 attempt on Ronald Reagan's life.

Reagan of course was wounded by John Hinckley in '81, but he lived another twenty-three years, finally succumbing to Alzheimer's disease, which was diagnosed in 1994.

And Dugard--and I guess O'Reilly (how much of this book did he really write?)--focus on Reagan's alleged mental decline after the assassination attempt, claiming that the Gipper spent much of his second term watching soap operas.

George Will, whose wife worked in the Reagan White House, has been a particularly harsh critic of the book. He debated O'Reilly on his O'Reilly Factor show earlier this month.Will scolded the authors for not interviewing any of the principals who closely worked with the 40th president.

I reviewed "Killing Lincoln" for Marathon Pundit. I for the most part liked it, but I pointed out some faults, that never should have made it into printed form.

There are a few flaws in this otherwise entertaining and informing book. The authors note that after Lee's surrender, the Virginian and Grant never met again. But the commander of the Unions armies visited Lee the next morning, which Grant recounted in his Memoirs. That's odd, since dialogue between the generals from the Memoirs are included in O'Reilly and Dugard's book. And shortly before his death, Lee visited Grant, who was by then president, in the White House. Also, there was no Oval Office during Lincoln's time--the West Wing wasn't constructed until the early 1900s, Lincoln usually worked in a second floor White House office.

Lincoln at Forest Lawn

The authors cast suspicion on Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, claiming that he may have known about Booth's plot against Lincoln beforehand. That's a stretch, to say the least. Although Stanton and Lincoln's relationship got off to a very bad start when they were working as attorneys on patent case in the 1850s, the Ohioan came to greatly admire the 16th president after his appointment to the cabinet. Besides, what would be Stanton's motive in having Lincoln killed? Or even kidnapped, as was Booth's original plan.

A night-time suicide bombing blamed on Boko Haram extremists killed 32 people and wounded 80 Tuesday at a truck stop in northeastern Nigeria, an emergency official said.

Tuesday night's blast breaks a three-week hiatus in bombings after a string of suicide attacks culminated in twin explosions in mosques in two northeastern cities that killed 42 people and wounded more than 100 on Oct. 23.

One of the mosques attacked was in Yola, capital of Adamawa state, where the insurgents struck again. It was the third suicide bombing in as many months in a city overflowing with some of the 2.3 million refugees driven from their homes by the Islamic uprising.

A woman blew herself up as elite French police raided an apartment while hunting high-level terrorism suspects wanted over last week's Paris attacks, officials said.

Heavy gunfire was reported for several hours beginning around 4:30 a.m. local time (10:30 p.m. ET Tuesday) in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. Another person was also killed while seven others were arrested during the operation.

A woman detonated a suicide vest as the apartment was stormed, according to the Paris Prosecutor's Office. It was not immediately clear how the second person died.

U.S. and other Western officials have maintained for weeks that it was likely a bomb that blew the Russian plane apart about 25 minutes after it took off from the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Oct. 31.

"According to our experts, a homemade explosive device equivalent to 1 kilogram (about 1.6 pounds) of TNT went off onboard, which caused the plane to break up in the air, which explains why the fuselage was scattered over such a large territory. I can certainly say that this was a terrorist act," the head of Russia's Federal Security Service told the emergency meeting of the Russian Security Council.

Of course to President Obama, a terrorist attack is nothing but "a setback."

They discovered two graves. The first – containing the corpses of older women – was found west of the city's centre, near the Sinjar Technical Institute. The second was ten miles west, and is believed to contain men, women and children. It is rigged with explosives and deliberately difficult to access.

The Kurdish government team will analyse the bodies in an attempt to uncover the grim story of what happened here.

If you were waiting to hear a US president say, "I feel your pain" or if you were waiting to hear a US President say, "It's them or us," that is not what you just heard.

President Obama called the attacks here in Paris a "setback" at one point. He was asked "is it time to change your strategy." More or less he said no. "Have you under estimated the abilities of ISIS?" More or less he said no. "Do you understand how to defeat ISIS?" His response: "This is a variation of the same question."

President Obama has made it quite clear in that Q-and-A that lasted more than 45 minutes that he has accepted there are evils in this world and evils in places like Paris, France and this is something that we all must face today. It's a reality in which the world we live. If you're at home wondering with your own set of anger and your own set of fears about what can happen next, you are not alone, because that is precisely what you feel here in Paris, France. And if you were awaiting clarification on your feelings through that Q-and-A, you weren't gonna get it. The president's strategy as stated over the weekend continues as is.

Monday, November 16, 2015

The Michigan Veterans Foundation sold its headquarters in Detroit's Cass Corridor to make way for the new Red Wings arena and the Wayne State University Business School. The group purchased space in Detroit's Woodbridge District, which, like many Detroit neighborhoods, is dominated by vacant lots and abandoned buildings.

The veterans group wants to relocate and build on an empty triangular lot where Grand River Avenue, West Forest Avenue and 14th Street intersect. Several empty buildings are nearby and one of the closest businesses to the location is a party [liquor] store. The vets group bought the property from Detroit Public Schools last year.

But some residents of the Woodbridge District, a neighborhood west of Wayne State University where property values are steadily rising, are balking.

"This development would further curtail what many Woodbridge residents use as a dog-walking path and ski trail," members of the Woodbridge Citizen Districts Council wrote to the Detroit's City Planning Commission, objecting to the relocation of the Veterans Foundation. "We would like to have development projects that appropriately complement our neighborhood and the amenities our residents would need."

While the neighborhood organization states it's "supportive of the mission" of the veterans foundation, the proposed center doesn't belong in the community, the group argues.

What the community, which is really a wasteland, needs is more people in it. Here's another view, which includes that party store. I can only conclude that the neighborhood group just doesn't want the vets there. After all, there is plenty of other open space so a new dirt dog path can develop.

"We have the right strategy and we're going to see it through," Obama said. "There will be an intensification of the strategy we have put forward, but the strategy we have put forward is the strategy that will ultimately work" though it will take time.

He said that airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have been effective in taking out key members of the terror group's leadership and that a large presence of ground troops in Syria would be a "mistake."

Hello Obama! Never telegraph to an enemy--although Dear Leader won't used that word--what you will or won't do. The fear of the unknown is powerful weapon--but so is a bullet through the brain.

Detroit has many historic churches--and one of the most compelling stories of those houses of worship belongs to King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church on the corner of 14th and Marquette in the rundown NW Goldberg neighborhood.

DetroitUrbEx wrote a detailed account about this church that I drew heavily upon for this post.

In the early 20th century there was a large influx of southerners--both white and black--into Detroit as the auto industry took off. Unfortunately they didn't leave their prejudices at home.

Temple Baptist, an all-white congregation, built the Tudor Revival church in 1917. Five years later King Solomon, a predominantly African-American church, was founded in the Black Bottom neighborhood. Temple's evangelizing mission was wildly popular and the church had over 3,000 members thirty years later. By then the church had outgrown its space and it moved to the Petosky-Otsego neighborhood where it once held outdoor revivals. Temple moved one more time in Detroit--then to the suburbs. In 1986 the first black member joined, at the urging of its pastor, Truman Dollar. But Dollar got caught up in a sex scandal, resigned, and later committed suicide. NorthRidge Church in Plymouth is considered the successor of Temple.

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Ephesians 2:19-20.

An art-deco style auditorium, with a capacity of 5,000, opened in 1937 across 14th Street from the church.

When King Solomon moved in, the auditorium was one of the largest black-owned meeting spaces in the Motor City. It was there that future US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was then president of the NAACP, spoke in 1954. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed parishioners twice, in 1958 and 1963. Malcolm X also twice spoke at the church in '63--where he gave his non-conciliatory "Message to the Grass Roots" speech--and he presented another fiery address a year later.

Religion, like the arts, doesn't always pay the bills, so retail space was part of the Temple/King Solomon complex.

NW Goldberg's sidewalks are crumbling and covered with vegetation--forcing residents to walk on the streets, which are in shoddy shape too. There are more vacant lots than occupied houses there.

The membership of King Solomon Baptist Church has withered to about 150 people, DetroitUrbEx reported that in 2011 the church was being powered by a generator and being heated by propane.

The terrorist attacks in Paris have prompted two governors to announce that Syrian refugees will not be allowed to resettle in their states.

Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan and Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, both Republicans, issued individual statements Sunday declaring that their states would not be open to refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria.

Noting Michigan's "rich history of immigration," Snyder’s statement said, "But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents."

France launched "massive" air strikes on the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in Syria Sunday night, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.

Twelve aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September, a Defense Ministry statement said. The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in coordination with U.S. forces.

The day before the barbaric Islamic State attacks in Paris, President Obama told ABC News' George Stephanopolous, a member of his supplicant media, that ISIS has been "contained." He also told the former Clinton White House staffer that he didn't think the radical Islamic group was gaining strength.

The modest white home of Carlene Parker is where pavement turns to gravel. In most directions, rolling mounds of farm fields are dotted with similarly white houses. But to Parker's southeast sits something different — a drab gray structure cordoned off by barbed wire fences.

The maximum-security United States Disciplinary Barracks is home to Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. It is home to Hasan Akbar, who killed two officers and wounded 14 others in Kuwait in 2003. It is home to Robert Bales, who killed 16 Iraqi civilians, nine of whom were children, in 2012. It is the nation's most notorious military prison and its most secure.

Through local lore and Hollywood depictions, the word Leavenworth has become synonymous with prisons, of which there are several. Political prisoners, gangsters, assassins, bank robbers and spies have passed through the town of 35,000 people.

Parker predicts a "mass exodus" from the historic town near the Missouri border.

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